LEOMINSTER -- While the nor'easter spared the North Worcester County area the destruction and power outages that ravaged the eastern part of the state, local residents still had to dig out from 2 feet of snow.

Deedee Gagne was shoveling out her driveway on Central Street with her granddaughter Kiki, 7. Her van was running in park to flood the area with a Lady Gaga song over the radio.

"I knew it was going to be a beauty," Gagne said of the storm.

She came out every few hours to shovel so the snow wouldn't get too deep.

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The Storm was still going strong on Saturday morning and many were out working hard to dig out of it. Very big vehicles were being used to plow the streets of Fitchburg like this one on John Fitch Highway. (John Love)

She lives on a major road near the DPW yard just outside the downtown area and said that brings by a lot of plow trucks that reblock her driveway with snow.

"I don't blame them," Gagne said. "All you can do about it is try to keep it out by shoveling."

She went through the Blizzard of '78 and said this one wasn't nearly as bad.

"They were a heck of a lot more on top of it this time," she said.

This time, she stocked up on food, water and candles, something she didn't do 35 years ago, almost to the day.

"There's been no real problems," said Scott Buchanan, 37, of Richardson Street. "Just wind and a lot of snow."

He got his generator out in preparation but didn't have to use it.

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He said he and his family were going to stay in Saturday.

"I'm just going to hunker down and brew some beer," Buchanan said.

He said the low temperatures are perfect for brewing a lager in his basement.

Tommy Braman, 50, of Leominster was shoveling out a path to Route 12 for his apartment building.

"I thought it'd be a lot heavier," he said.

He worked for the MBTA for the Blizzard of '78 and remembers being part of a team that had to shovel off the tracks in Brookline.

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The Storm was still going strong on Saturday morning and many were out working hard to dig out of it. Troy LeBlanc works on clearing his driveway on John Fitch Highway in Fitchburg early Saturday morning. (John Love)

Jennifer LeBlanc of Fitchburg was out walking her dog, an Irish terrier mix, Saturday afternoon.

"He had to be walked anyway, so I figured it was now or never," she said as he jumped through the snow, barked at other dogs walking by and eventually tripped his owner up.

"He loves the snow. I think he's just a little discombobulated right now," she said as she pulled herself up off of the road.

Paul Hobe of Lunenburg ventured out in the weather Saturday afternoon to get coffee from Cumberland Farms on Route 13 in Lunenburg.

Hobe said he never lost power and could make coffee at his house, but said he wanted to get out and see the aftermath of the storm.

"This is nothing," he said outside the store.

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The Storm was still going strong on Saturday morning and many were out working hard to dig out of it. Trying to get the ice off their truck wiper while working for the DPW in Lunenburg is Jason Reid Jr and Jason Reid Sr. who are private contractors from Leominster hired to help out the town. (John Love)

"I've been through hurricanes living in Florida for over 10 years, so this type of stuff is nothing new to me."

He said the roads from his house to the store were still "pretty bad," but he planned to go home and spend the rest of the day on the couch watching movies with his friends.

"I got up this morning and basically dug a path to my four-wheel drive and took off," he said.

Representatives from Cumberland Farms said they had been out of gas since Friday afternoon and had no idea when they might expect more. All they had on site was diesel.

Cumberland Farms stores across New England offered free cups of coffee for all essential workers, include police and fire workers and plow drivers, through Sunday at 5 a.m.

Bobby Pearson owns and operates the Leominster Monument Co. in Lunenburg, and while he opted not to open for business Saturday, he spent the majority of his morning plowing out the parking lot and then shoveling out the front entrance to the store.

"My wife told me to come out and get this started today," he said, laughing, while taking a break from his shoveling. "It's not too bad out, but since it's still a state of emergency, we figured it wouldn't make the most sense to open up for a couple hours."

He said he had been out since 6 a.m., plowing out his business as well as helping to shovel out a couple of other driveways in town.

"This is the most snow I've seen at once," he said, noting that at 29, he wasn't around in '78.

The employees at Aubuchon Hardware in Lunenburg weren't letting the snow stop them from getting to work -- they wanted to make sure they could have supplies ready for people who needed them.

As of noon, manager Bob Alden said only four customers had been in the store since it opened at 8 a.m., but he had no plans to close early.

"I live in Townsend, which is more out in the woods than Lunenburg, and we never lost power, so I didn't think it would be an issue here," he said, adding that most people who came in were looking for shovels.

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